Clocking on again

BONG!

Big Ben's iconic chimes may have been temporarily silence at the Houses of Parliament but the roar of relief around Goodison when the Brighton defender inadvertently stuck the ball in his own net was louder than the Westminster clock tower and helped buy a bit more time for Big Sam.

As comedy 'oggies' go, Gaetan Bong's moment of misfortune was a distant second on the day to Manchester United man Eric Bailly's outrageous effort against Liverpool but unlike the rick at Old Trafford, it proved decisive as it put the home side on their way to victory.

Going into this game, many Blues were in low spirits and while being exposed to the goldfish bowl that is social media, such rumblings of discontent can be wildly amplified, once the game kicked off, everyone was pulling together as travel sick Everton enjoyed home comforts for the first time in a month.

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They needed to as for the first two-thirds of the contest, Chris Hughton's troops remained resolute and for those who had witnessed the clash between this two sides at the Amex Stadium earlier this season, there were worrying echoes of an occasion in which the Blues had enjoyed the lion's share of possession only to ultimately run out of ideas but thankfully this time out they were eventually able to make their dominance count.

Better Leighton never

All players are determined to impress a new manager – given the tumultuous ride he's already experience in the role can Sam Allardyce still be described in such terms? - but Leighton Baines has had to wait a long time to do so.

Overloaded by Everton's bizarre recruitment oversight of not providing him with a suitable deputy, the veteran left-back seemingly inevitably succumbed to injury in the horror show at Southampton back in November that finally convinced the board that David Unsworth couldn't continue in the top job.

The road to recovery for Baines has had plenty of bumps on the way but he was back with a bang here.

There was a personal milestone for 33-year-old as he surpassed another great Everton full-back (and fellow Scouser) Tommy Wright with his 374 start for the club against Brighton and he marked the occasion in style.

During Baines' absence, the right-footed Cuco Martina has found himself as a squarest of pegs in a round hole on the port side of the Blues defence but having stuck to his task and delivered a couple of left-footed assists in recent weeks, the man who he was deputising for showed that he could repeat the trick in reverse.

Baines might have had concerns about just how much of the ball he might see playing under Allardyce but he rolled back the years to bomb forward and create Cenk Tosun's first Goodison goal with the sweetest of right-footed deliveries.

He waited and waited until the moment was just right before teeing up the Turk and thankfully completed the 90 minutes despite being on the receiving end of a shocking late lunge from Anthony Knockaert which saw the Frenchman dismissed.

Moving on up

It was a damning indication of how this season hasn't gone to plan for Everton – and that's putting it mildly – that the Blues went into this game below opponents Albion on goal difference just as they had in the reverse fixture back in October.

Revelling in the dizzy heights for the first time, Brighton, back at Goodison for the first time in almost 36 years, are enjoying the ride.

In contrast to Everton who had won just two in their last 12, a run that includes seven defeats, they came into the match unbeaten in their last seven outings.

However, almost from the kick-off the gulf in class between the two sets of players was all-too-obviously apparent but for all their individual quality, it did not make the task at hand any more straightforward for the hosts.

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Just had been the case against Burnley a week earlier, you probably wouldn't have swapped any of the Blues line-up for a single man in the opposition camp before kick-off but again that shows how this Everton side is too often a collection of gifted individuals rather than a cohesive unit.

They looked far more organised on this occasion than they have done of late but for an hour this was still a test of patience.

Tosun is no Turkey

Ahead of the January transfer window opening, Allardyce acknowledged that his first signing as Everton manager would have to make a significant impact so the pressure was on the shoulders of both Cenk Tosun and the man who recruited him before he'd even pulled on a royal blue jersey.

A belated replacement for Romelu Lukaku, the club's leading scorer for the past four seasons and most gifted striker of the Premier League era, big things were expected of the Turkish international.

Personally scouted by director of football Steve Walsh and major shareholder Farhad Moshiri in a Champions League match in Monaco, Tosun was lauded as the best striker of his type available in Europe for the price.

Allardyce himself seemed unsure whether his capture could hit the ground running but after a couple of difficult early outings he was quickly dumped from the starting line-up with his career in English football appearing to stall before it had chance to get going.

Appearing cheery and speaking his proficient but limited English on public appearances while knuckling down at Finch Farm plus the warm weather training camp in Dubai, Tosun has worked hard to get back into the fold and both he and his club are now reaping the rewards.

Strikers thrive on confidence, and boosted by breaking his duck at Burnley, Tosun, whose general play was tidy throughout, crashed an effort off the crossbar into the Park End goal for his maiden Goodison strike.

It was one that Evertonians will both hope and expect is the first of many.

Happy Roo year?

Striking the right balance in midfield has been an ongoing dilemma for Everton all season but without either of the men who dominated the engine room for the second half of the previous campaign – Idrissa Gueye and Morgan Schneiderlin – the Blues found an effective formula here.

Both were absent from the matchday squad and while the Frenchman has been a sorry shadow of his former self in recent months, the loss of the Senegalese international to the same illness on the morning of the game seemed like a significant blow for the hosts.

However Gueye's absence saw Allardyce go for a trio of Wayne Rooney, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Tom Davies in the centre of the park – with neither of the former two operating as a conventional 'number 10'.

If he is to prolong his career at the top level, the record goalscorer for both Manchester United and England seems destined to continue playing deep, in a role that his manager declared “he mastered” as the team's 'prompter.'

His passing range – which has sometimes been hit and miss this season – was exquisite and with Sigurdsson also intelligent with his distribution, the chemistry worked well as Tom Davies provided the legs.

However, after racing to his best-ever Everton goals total just half a season into his return, it was a shame that Rooney, who has been absent from the scoresheet since converting a penalty against Swansea back on December 18, couldn't register for the first time this calendar year.

Perhaps a revitalised Baines should take spot-kick duties back off him?